Overview

• Republicans designed the new lines to add one GOP-leaning U.S. House seat in 2026, building on a national mid-decade redistricting push.
• The plan redraws Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City–anchored district by extending it into Republican-leaning rural areas and reducing Black and minority representation.
• Kansas City is split into three districts, with Troost Avenue used as a boundary that Cleaver criticized for echoing historic segregation.
• A petition drive has until Dec. 11 to submit roughly 110,000 valid signatures, which would suspend the map and trigger a statewide referendum next year.
• Lawsuits from voters, the NAACP and the ACLU challenge mid-cycle authority and compliance with compactness and equal-population rules, and a disputed precinct listing that the governor’s office says reflects two different locations.